South Wales East (Welsh: Dwyrain De Cymru) is an electoral region of the Senedd, consisting of eight constituencies. The region elects 12 members, eight directly elected constituency members and four additional members. The electoral region was first used in 1999, when the National Assembly for Wales was created.
Each constituency elects one Member of the Senedd by the first past the post electoral system, and the region as a whole elects four additional or top-up Members of the Senedd, to create a degree of proportional representation. The additional member seats are allocated from closed lists by the D'Hondt method, with constituency results being taken into account in the allocation.
The region is one of contrasts; it includes the city of Newport, along with the town of Caerphilly. It also takes in the working-class former iron town of Merthyr Tydfil, one of the most deprived towns in the UK, but also rural Monmouthshire, one of the most affluent parts of Wales.
On 8 December 2009, Mohammad Asghar, Plaid Cymru's list member for South Wales East, defected to the Conservative Party. This gave Plaid one AM, and the Conservatives two.[7]
^In 2005 Peter Law left the Labour Party in a row over candidate selection in Blaenau Gwent for that year's UK general election.
^Still a member of the Brexit Party, but part of the Senedd Group 'Independent Group for Reform'
^In 2017, Mark Reckless left UKIP and was admitted to the Conservative group in the Welsh Assembly, though not to the Conservative Party itself. For purposes of Assembly business, he was treated as a Conservative AM.
^Steffan Lewis died on 11 January 2019 and was replaced five days later by Delyth Jewell, the next Plaid Cymru candidate on the list.[1]
^In 2019, Reckless left the Conservative Group to become Independent.
